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Christian Church
The Christian Church was the first Christian denomination, existing from 30 AD to 325 AD. The church emerged as a schism from Judaism which accepted Jesus as the son of God and as the Jewish Messiah; it was branded as heresy by the Sanhedrin and was persecuted by the Jewish and Roman authorities for centuries. The early church was decentralized, and its teachings spread by word of mouth; it was not until 120 AD that the church's canons were officially compiled in the New Testament. After the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the original Christian Church was divided between the Western (Latin) and Eastern (Greek and other Eastern) churches, while smaller "heretical" denominations such as Arianism also proliferated. Today, Protestants apply the term "Christian Church" to apply to all Christians regardless of denomination, but Catholicism and Orthodoxy believe that the term "Church" only applies to a specific, visible institution. History Origins The first Christians were all originally Jews by birth or through conversion, and they originally adhered to Jewish traditions such as Sabbath observance, the Jewish calendar, halakhic law, circumcision, the kosher diet, and synagogue attendance. However, they split from Judaism in that they believed that Jesus was the son of God, the awaited Jewish Messiah, and that he was resurrected after his crucifixion to sit at the right hand of God in heaven. Saint Peter supported the view that gentile converts ought to adopt more Jewish practices to be saved, but Saint Paul argued that Jesus' sacrifice was meant to save all humanity, not just the Jews. Paul and other disciples of Jesus spread the Gospel orally in Aramaic and Greek, and the Christian community was centered in Jerusalem. After the destruction of the Second Temple at the end of the First Jewish-Roman War, Christianity emerged as a religion separate from Judaism, as Christians saw the destruction of the Second Temple as a punishment from God for the Jews' execution of Jesus, and because the Christians were not supportive of the uprising against Roman rule. The Christians also developed a set of books to form the Christian canon, the New Testament of the Bible, which was finished by 120 AD. Paul's Epistle to the Romans established a theology based on Jesus Christ rather than on the Mosaic law, but Christians hold the Ten Commandments, the Great Commandment ("Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself"), and the Golden Rule (treating others as one's self would wish to be treated) to be relevant moral prescriptions. The early Christians originally only practiced the baptism of believers, but, during the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries, infant baptism began to be practiced; Christians saw baptism as being the cleansing of sin and the induction of converts into the faith. Christian groups and organizations were organized loosely at first, and bishops, elders, and deacons had no delineated functions during Paul's time. The Christians congregated for worship services on Sundays instead of Saturdays (as their Jewish forbearers did), as they believed that Jesus was resurrected on a Sunday, the same day of the week in which God created the heavens and the universe. The church, unlike synagogues, allowed for women to participate in worship; some women such as Priscilla and Lydia of Thyatira held semi-clerical roles as missionaries. Early Christians opposed determinism and championed the concept of a relational God who interacted with humans rather than a Stoic god who had foreordained every event. The Twelve Apostles dispersed to preach across the world, establishing communities in major cities and regions throughout the Roman Empire (including North Africa, Asia Minor, Armenia, the Caucasus, Arabia, and Greece), and 40 churches existed by 100 AD. By this time, Christianity had even reached India. In 201 AD, under Abgar the Great, Osroene in Mesopotamia became the first Christian state, followed by Armenia in 301 AD. Despite sometimes intense persecutions, Christianity spread to the Mediterranean world, with several pagans believing that the miracles performed by the apostles meant that Christianity's God was truly the only God, as he was stronger than any of the pagan deities. Peter became the first Bishop of Rome, while Paul spread the faith in other parts of the Mediterranean world. The Christians, as an exclusive faith, argued that there should be no other gods or idols but God himself, and sought to convert the world to their faith in order for them to achieve salvation. Fate of the Church The Roman Empire persecuted Christianity due to its revolutionary belief that God was the only legitimate ruler, and that the word of God was supreme over the words of earthly rulers. In 64 AD, Emperor Nero had Peter and Paul executed after blaming them for the Great Fire of Rome, and the Roman pagans criticzed the Christians for their practice of Communion, in which Romans claimed that the Christians drank the blood of their God and ate his body (they drank wine and ate bread in remembrance of Jesus). By the end of the 2nd century AD, the Christians were blamed for every public disaster and affliction, and they were publicly fed to lions as punishment. The first 33 Popes were martyred on the orders of the Roman emperors, but their faith continued. In 244 AD, Emperor Philip the Arab was said to have converted to Christianity, but he was murdered in 249, and it was not until the reign of Constantine the Great that Christianity was legalized in 313 AD. Constantine built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the site of Jesus' tomb in Jerusalem, and Constantine heavily promoted the church. In 325 AD, Constantine called the First Council of Nicaea, and, by this time, Christianity had already developed several denominations, including Arianism. The council's result was the creation of mainstream Christianity, which believed in the Trinity (God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit being the same, co-eternal beings). After the council, however, the Bishops of Rome claimed to have primacy over the other bishops, while the Eastern bishops dissented; this led to the split of Western Christianity (Catholicism) and Eastern Christianity (Orthodoxy and Miaphysitism, among others). The early church, which was notably decentralized and evangelism-based, would be divided into many institutionalized "churches" such as the Catholic Church, Orthodox Christianity, Miaphysitism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism, Iconoclasm, Arianism, and other denominations in the next few centuries. Category:Religions Category:Christianity